Jason Toney, currently of CBS Interactive, and previously of AXS/AEG, Disney Interactive, and Bunim-Murray Productions, is all about digital media. He's held site and content production roles and is presently most interested in data-driven strategy work. This is his personal blog. Yeah, he still does that on occasion.

Jan 25 The Switch

I was at Disneyland with my friends. It was around lunch time and we were enjoying drinks and a light meal inside the Carthay Circle restaurant in Disney’s California Adventure. We all were charging our phones a bit. Mine, surprisingly was at a robust 58%. Mind you, this was only 4 hours after it had stopped being charged by my car. It was after only light usage—I had done much less with it that morning than I wanted—but this is where my head was with the nexus 5. This was a win.

We packed up and walked over to Disneyland heading in to Tomorrowland and the line for Star Tours. At most, this was a 20 minute excursion. As we settled into the queue, I checked my phone again: 22%. 22 percent! I wanted to chuck it into the river as soon as we got near Tom Sawyer Island.

Instead, I exhaled. I had already made the switch. The iPhone 6 would arrive two days later.

Three weeks later and these are my thoughts.

As I write this, my phone is at 38%. I used my phone heavily yesterday and I haven’t plugged it in since yesterday morning.

What iOS, and in particular this latest version of the iPhone offers, though, is an enjoyable experience with lots of little moments that make you appreciate it all the more.

The novelty of being able to unlock and complete other security tasks with my thumb hasn’t worn off. The Today tab/widgets are used more regularly than my android widgets ever were. I say “Hey Siri” more than I said “OK Google”. The cross-device integrations are outstanding. That I didn’t have to set up anything a second or third time to use my personal hotspot with my laptop or iPad felt efficient. That I can see GIFs in iMessage and Slack. That I don’t need another app to see my text messages across my different devices. The size of the hard drive. The camera. Holy shit, the camera.

And, the apps I use regularly just work. I hadn’t realized how frustrated I was with rdio and waze and a few others not doing what I wanted them to on the Nexus until I got them on this phone and realized I wasn’t having problems. And some of them do a few more things in iOS than they do in Android.

With the iPhone, so far, I worry very little about apps refreshing in the background. I have yet to accidentally call or text someone. I have yet to worry about being low on battery life before the end of the day. And I use it more frequently for more things that I did my nexus. It’s weird how transformative it’s been.

Why the switch?

Battery life wasn’t my only complaint with the Nexus 5 in recent months but it was my biggest challenge. On a daily basis, I was thinking far too often about whether or not I would have enough juice to do what I needed to do during my normal routine. I'm not alone.

After installing lollipop, the phone seemed less responsive. Opening apps and swiping screens had a slight delay. In the past, that would’ve triggered my desire to buy the latest and greatest in the google line of phones but the Nexus 6—like the iPhone 6 plus—was way too big. The Samsungs look cool but also are stocked with bloatware that I don’t want and the iPhone 6 was the first in the iPhone line that truly intrigued me.

Switch. Switch switch switch.

What I miss

Because of some office IT politics, I have to access Microsoft Outlook through the web and I had an app on my nexus that regularly synced my outlook calendar to my google calendar so that I didn’t have to manage it in two places. I haven’t found a way to do that in iOS yet. I miss being able to swipe right and get Google NOW. The twitter app for Android (and iPad) supports lists. I haven’t been able to find them in the twitter app on the iPhone so I swap between it and tweetbot.

That’s about it.

I’m still learning the iPhone. I’m surprised with how different, yet similar, it is to the iPad in function. And I’m finding that adjustment and learning curve enjoyable. It’s been awhile since I’ve had to explore a new gadget and really figure it out.